Pastor of Texas town’s only black church charged for shining light off property
[UPDATE: Nov. 20, 2018, 3:00 p.m.]
This story has been updated to include a response from Manvel City Manager Kyle Jung.
Leaders of Manvel, Texas’ only predominantly black church are now claiming harassment and discrimination from city officials after they were charged then exonerated in a trial for shining light too brightly off their property.
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Pastor Patrick Williams of Overflow Church was criminally charged with a class-B misdemeanor for a code violation related to parking lot lights, according to KHOU.
At a one-day trial last week, Williams was acquitted by a jury of his peers but said the harassment over the church’s lights continued. And that’s why he, backed by his congregation, began speaking out on Sunday.
"We came back here [the night of the acquittal] and the harassment started all over again," Williams told KHOU. "We just got to the point where we're not dealing with it anymore. We've got our attorney."
In an interview with The Christian Post Tuesday, Manvel City Manager Kyle Jung said even though Williams was acquitted, the lights are still a problem for the neighbor. He also doesn’t see the city’s request that he turn down the lights in the church’s parking lot as harassment.
“We had gone to the pastor and asked him if he could simply adjust them down and shine down on the parking lot as opposed to into the neighbor’s property and into their house. He said ‘no, if she doesn’t like the lights she just needs to buy thicker shades.’
“I don’t know anything about that (harassment),” said Jung when asked about the claims from the pastor and his wife that the city was harassing the church. “We’re simply asking him to be a good neighbor and he won’t do that.”
Jung said Williams was acquitted of violating a city ordinance because at least two jurors at his trial felt he had done no wrong. He insisted, however, that if he keeps getting complaints about the lights, the city will be forced to act. Since the trial, the city has not taken any action against the church or Williams.
They are hoping he would settle the dispute in a “Christian” manner.
“If we continue to get complaints from the neighbors then we have to enforce that. Nothing has been done though about that. We simply are asking him to adjust the lights and then the issue goes away. I would think that would be something the church would understand … the Christian thing to do would be not to shine your lights in somebody else’s house,” Jung said.
Calls made to Overflow Church were not answered.
Williams told the Houston Chronicle that three months before charges were filed against him for the parking lot lights, they were adjusted to address concerns from at least one neighbor.
The pastor also told the publication that Manvel does not have a lighting ordinance and the church is the only building the city does not allow to shine light off of its property.
In a Facebook Post on Sunday night, Overflow Church accused the city of orchestrating a personal attack on Williams with the charges.
“The City of Manvel, Texas continue to harass and discriminate against Pastor Pat Williams and information came out in the trial on Nov. 8, 2018. Michael Dumas is the Manvel Fire Marshall. There was an SUP submitted to Council and the documents was changed after the adoption so that they could file criminal charges for parking lots lights against Pastor Pat (Personally) When there is no Light ordinance in Manvel and no other business has this language in their Special Use Permit. Also information came out that the Fire Marshall Michael Dumas had a Confederate Flag as his profile picture,” the post said.
“We are being harassed and discriminated against,” Williams declared Sunday at his church with his congregation behind him.
“If the policy is only for us, then that’s unfair,” his wife, Marilyn, added.
Laurie Cimrharzel, who lives behind the church and has been affected by their bright light, told the Houston Chronicle that the church was not facing discrimination.
“Rules are rules,” she told the publication Sunday. “Whether it’s a church or a business.”
Cimrharzel said her backyard faces the church, she has to tape down the edges of the fabric blinds in her bedroom to keep the light from the church out so she can sleep.
She noted that she could be the only one affected by the church’s light but added that it is still wrong for their light to flow on her property.
“They have been better, but they’re not fixed,” she said of the adjustments the church made.
